Article “City, Industry and Health. Local Narratives about the Coke Plant in Bakar” published in Etnološka tribina

The article “City, Industry and Health. Local Narratives about the Coke Plant in Bakar”, written by Robert Doričić, Nevena Škrbić Alempijević and Iva Rinčić, has been published in the journal Etnološka tribina, vol. 50 (2020).

Summary: Using the example of the coke plant in Bakar that was shut down at the end of the twentieth century, the authors discuss the relationship between industry and the city as seen through the contemporary viewpoint of the local inhabitants. The article combines the notions of urban studies, post-industrial anthropology and studies of public health issues to analyse the social dynamics and clashes caused by industrialisation and deindustrialisation in and around Bakar. The authors deal with the transformations in people’s everyday lives caused by the politics and practices of (de)industrialisation in the second half of the twentieth century. The focus is on narratives from Bakar inhabitants related to the impact of the coke plant on environmental pollution and quality of life, primarily in terms of health. The authors re-examine the term “post-industrial city” and question what means to live in a town burdened by its industrial past.

Article